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The Wayne Family Crypt in Orion Oaks County Park

We suspected that we might see some flashbacks to the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, but the movie seems to set aside quite a lot of time to the event. Scenes of the actual murder were filmed in Chicago, but the funeral at least was filmed in Orion Oaks County Park, north of the Pontiac Studios in Michigan. This park was also the site of the ruined Wayne Manor, but that will have to wait for another post. Orion Oaks is a beautiful park, not crowded, but people are there walking their dogs and biking the trails all the time. Somehow the production managed to build 2 pretty substantial structures in the park that didn’t come to light until just before they actually filmed the scenes, a few days apart.

The mausoleum was relatively easy to find thanks to a helpful production sign with an arrow, but honestly the structure was so detailed and blended in so well, that unless you stopped to wonder why such a thing was in the middle of a public park, most people would just assume it had been there for decades! Plenty of people were able to walk right by it and take photographs, especially once filming had finished, and I wandered by there a few times to get some good shots. Security presence was fortunately pretty low key due to the remoteness of the location, but on the actual filming days every path was blocked. My pictures were released exclusively on BatmanNews.com. Here are a few more. I wish I could have got closer to the gravestones, but the right angle was hard to get under the eye of security. Other people did better and those close-up pics are out there.

The same day that filming was taking place in the park we also saw old cars, including a hearse in the lot, and extras dressed in 1980’s mourning wear. Trailers revealed that Alfred might be on set, and it wasn’t too hard to deduce that the scene filmed in the park was the Wayne’s funeral.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a shout-out to two of my partners-in-crime. @RyanAMetzger was the first to see those tell-take CCP signs and give us a heads up on filming in the park. Then he and his courageous kids explored the park with me way too late one night, risking life and limb from bow hunters! Guess we should have checked about the hunting thing before we went skulking through the long grass! And of course the amazing and brave @eviejeevie who ventured off the beaten path to find out what was going on. I wish I’d saved the texts she sent me that day, but perhaps its her story to tell! Thanks for your help, guys!